Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Doug Keefe's avatar

I'm a fan of brainstorming so I'm glad to see this. The cardinal rule is no analysis until the all the ideas are in. One point I'd add is that once this has been firmly ingrained in a culture, people naturally follow it even when not formally brainstorming. I give an example in one of my posts where I defend brainstorming against evidence that it doesn't work. Cheers and thanks. (https://leadingmanagers.substack.com/p/is-brainstorming-its-own-bad-idea)

Expand full comment
Doug Keefe's avatar

Great question and yes, I have the same experience. I should say that I haven't facilitated since before Covid so my answer is what I "did" not what I "do". With that out of the way, the answer is yes absolutely - unless I was sure the people were already steeped in the practice (that's what my post is about). I challenged people to be safe, brief, and crazy. Then I had a quick story of a great idea generated by a daft idea which I nearly shut down. Finally, I gave two promises: to ruthlessly stifle analysis and debate; and to save plenty of time for analysis and debate. Knowing they would get their opportunity generally quieted people and gave me a shorthand way of shutting down those who weren't. I hope that helps.

Expand full comment
4 more comments...

No posts